Saturday, March 17, 2007

Have you ever been at a state of your life where most everyone you grew up with has progressed in life and you seem to be in the same place? I have and that was tonight. Old friends and roommates I haven't seen for years got together at Stir Fresh in Rancho Bernardo to celebrate a birthday. I have always felt a little weird around these guys because they were all good friends before I moved in with them, and they all surfed which was something I never did. I was accepted by these guys and they always treated me well, yet I often felt like the fifth wheel when we were all together. I just didn't have much in common with them. So now that life has happened and we are five years older, things between us are different. We have all married and each of us has one to two children. I was a little apprehensive of going to the gathering because I was afraid the old feelings of being the fifth wheel would resurface. It didn't and I had a good time. The thing that made all the difference for me is we all have something in common now; we all have families. I even hope to see them in the near future.

There is just one problem... I am still in school and they are done. One friend is currently working on a Masters. Now I only have a year to go which is exciting in of it's self, but it is hard not to feel small and insignificant around these guys. A few years ago we were all in the same boat and were all paddling for the same goal. Now they have moved on to speed boats and yachts and I am still in the row boat.

Feeling small is the story of my life, yet that is my problem to overcome because no one is making me feel small except myself.

I want to emphasize that these guys are the most trustworthy and kind people one could hope to know. I don't want anyone to come away from reading this thinking I had any ill feelings for these guys. I just feel academically small around them.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

I was chatting with my buddy Brandon G during Priesthood, and he said to me "PPI sounded funny". He went on to say that a PPI sounds like a pirate proclaiming his need to take a wizz. "RRRRRRrrr, I be taking a PPI". A PPI is an acronym for personal priesthood interview.

Brandon's comment was funny and it made me think. If PPI sounds like a pirate speaking potty, then how could we switch things up to make it sound cooler? How about we put an "i" in front of the PP instead of the end of it and leave it lower case. This change would make it look like it was made by Apple, INC. Anything made by Apple is cool in today's society. Now lets put the change to the test," we are having iPP's after church." I like it; however, I anticipate there will be some backlash to this change because saying iPP sounds like I am saying," I pee pee...". The way to compensate for this potential problem is to make up a logo for iPP to look all graffiti like. That would make it more hip and cool creating the illusion that it is ok to say iPP. This is similar to it being ok to say ass in church if you are reading the scriptures. Once there is common concensus, it is ok.

I am a friggin genius. I could make millions selling this idea all over the church. Maybe I could sell it to Apple... Yeah!

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Those who have been involved in any leadership position in the LDS church will know what I mean when I say the meetings can be boring. They often take place at the church building in small rooms filled with men odor. Some of the guys in my meetings can be real ripe because of their large stature (i.e. fat). The amount of people attending depends on the organization. If it was the ward mission meeting then the only ones in attendance would be the mission leader and the full-time missionaries. There might be one or two ward missionaries out of ten attending also. I was a ward missionary for five years in three different wards, so I can say this stuff with experience.I am currently a secretary in the elder's quorum and I love the meetings we are now having. I want to emphasise the word "now" because the ward meets at 1:00 pm and this provides great opportunities. I will explain; last year we had church from 11:00 to 2:00. The president would have PEC before church and we would have presidency meeting after church. Our presidency meeting would be right at the time we were most tired and hungry. The spirit would be at the meetings, but in the back of every one's mind would be the hope that the meeting would be over soon. It also didn't help that many of us had a wife and children waiting usually out in the hallway.

So like I said we now have church at 1:00, getting us out at 4:00 which makes it harder to have a meeting after church because by the time we would get home dinner would be eaten, and the wife would be mad because we were at a meeting so late. Now our meeting are in the morning to avoid the after church problems.

When I learned that we were going to have morning meetings instead of afternoon meetings and that they were going to be at a presidency member's house, I got way excited. The first thought I had was "We could have brunch at whoever's house we were at." I am the type of person who has no problem saying what I think I mentioned it at the next meeting and the one after that. I didn't really think the other guys were going to start a brunch tradition, yet I hoped they would. I thought the best way to start having food at the meetings was to be the first one to provide food by having the meeting at my place. Apparently I didn't need to do that because when we had our meeting at Matt B's house his wife made great muffins. The next week we had a manly breakfast made of chopped up potatoes with eggs on top cooked in a dutch oven. And last week we had a dope Angel food cake with some sugary goo on top.

I am a sinner for saying this, but I am sad it is fast Sunday this week. I guess all good things must stop for a greater good. We will just skip the food thing for a week, no biggy.

Pres. sent this e-mail to all in the presidency today:

Guys,Due to probable changes that may occur with the assistant secretaries, we will just meet as usual this Sunday over at Matt C's place at 9:30 am. It is fast Sunday so don't everybody get their hopes up for a nice snack (sob sob). See you then.